A Captain's Job
by Inumaru12
Summary: Luffy may not show it but he always worried about his Nakama, thus being one of things a Pirate Captain does. He always put them first, even if they didn’t realize. Light ZoLu. Some Luffy-angst. One-shot


**Summery:** Luffy may not show it but he always worried about his Nakama, thus being one of things a Pirate Captain does. He always put them first, even if they didn't realize.

**Warning: **Luffy-centric angst. Some blood and cussing. Light ZoLu

"Talking"

'Thoughts'

**Inumaru12:** **LOOKIE HERE!! **Good now that I have your attention, will you please review and vote on my poll on my profile! It's for what One Piece story I should do next. You get to vote up to two choices. Thanks! Enjoy!

**Disclaimer:**** I don't own One Piece, so I'll just bow at Oda-Sama's feet! (Bows) I AM NOT WORTHY! (XD)**

**A Captain's Job**

Luffy was described as many things by people he met.

Some of the things that people called him were: Loyal, Straw Hat, crazy, irresponsible, stupid, freak, caring, retarded, demon boy, happy go-lucky, and many, many more.

He believed that he was some of those things and for a while he actually believed the demon one until Ace and Shanks put him straight.

Luffy was one of the smarter people in the world, he just happened to have a different way to look at things and his reckless behavior happen that gave people the impression he was a idiot.

Luffy watched as his Nakama ran around doing whatever they pleased and felt a sense of pride fill him up to the top. He turned and faced the water as he sat on the top of Merry's head. He felt the familiar sense of worry vibrate through him.

Ever since he had gotten a Nakama he would feel worry prick at his mind. With the worry came questions. Many of the questions concerned his Nakama but not enough concerned his own well being.

Questions like 'Are they happy? Do they have enough to eat? Will I be strong enough to protect them from the next enemy we come across? If one of them is taken again will I be able to get them back?'

Thoughts like that went on and on. They kept him awake in his bed and on alert during his watch duty. He would watch for any sign of danger and would warn them.

Luffy briefly wondered if every captain went through this kind of suffering. The suffering of worrying if your Nakama, your family, would die the next day. It tore Luffy's mind apart with worry, fear that he would lose his only family, besides Ace and Shanks of course.

Luffy sighed lightly and saw out the corner of his eye that Zoro was watching him again. Lately Zoro had been watching him lately, not that Zoro knew that Luffy knew. Luffy put on his biggest grin and stared at the ocean happily, jumping up with joy when he saw a faint shape of an island.

He shouted to the rest of them excitably and everyone seemed amused by his antics…except Zoro who was still staring at him with an unreadable look on his face.

Luffy twitched slightly. Was it possible that Zoro had seen past his little act? Maybe.

It wasn't as if Luffy wore a mask always. Sure sometimes he acted stupider then by far of what he was and he would smile even when he didn't want to smile but he was truly an optimistic person.

The most different about his mask and the real him was food. He liked to make sure that people eat their food and ate enough, and if to threaten to eat their food worked, hey why not. His Nakama said he was selfish when it came to food but as much as he liked to eat he didn't need it as much as the regular human.

He knew that if his Nakama were hungry but two proud to admit it (Zoro) he could just say he was hungry and they would stop for lunch. That way he would make sure that none of his Nakama was hungry.

As they stopped at the island that Luffy had pointed out before Luffy noticed Zoro and Sanji talking. Well more like Zoro whispering and Sanji giving him a 'Are-You-Out-of-Your-Fucking-Mind? Sanji and Zoro made a quick look at Luffy but then as quickly looked away.

They dropped their anchor at the island and started to get off the ship. Luffy, of course, was the first one off.

"I'm gonna go explore!" He called cheerfully to his Nakama.

"Okay! Just be back before dark, and don't get in trouble!" Nami called to his back as he started to walk away.

"Hai!" He replied, not bothering to turn around.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Chopper, Usopp, and Robin go off in another direction as Nami yelled at them to be back before dark too. He also noticed that Sanji and Zoro seemed to be following him but trying not to be caught.

Luffy smirked a little and then started at a quicker pace. As he entered the forest he was able to make many swift turns and loose them.

Luffy grinned and he came onto a small dirt pathway and followed it uphill.

It wasn't that he didn't trust them, no he trusted them with his life and his Nakama's life, he just didn't like the idea of them following him so much.

He came to a top of a hill that overlooked the ocean and sat down, taking off his hat and setting it on the ground next to him. He laid on his back and gave pleased sigh. He then drifted off into sleep.

In his dream Luffy was standing on a beach and a couple of feet in front of him were his Nakama, waving to him. Luffy smiled, happy to see them when suddenly the sand started to disappear, causing his Nakama to be separated. Suddenly everything around them was pitch black and they all stood on floating piles of sand that broke apart and quickly to disappear into the nothingness of the darkness. Soon the sand would run out and one by one his crewmates fell into nothingness themselves but waving at Luffy and smiling.

Luffy tried to grab them with his rubber arms but they never went far enough to catch them. They all fell, until it was only him and Zoro.

Zoro stared at him with an unreadable expression and started to walk over to Luffy.

"No! You'll fall!" Screamed Luffy, trying to get his best friend and first mate to understand. But as Zoro made a step off the floating sand, more sand appeared under his foot along with his other foot as he made another step forward. He kept moving forward until he reached Luffy's sand and stepped onto it.

"Z-Zoro." Luffy mumbled, tears of frustration and fear down his cheeks. Zoro leaned over and grabbed Luffy's face with his hands gently. With his forehead against Luffy's he brushed Luffy's tears away.

"Luffy…" Zoro said softly. Luffy whimpered lightly as he brought his hands up to Zoro's and held them.

"Don't leave me Zoro. Please don't leave me." Luffy whimpered again.

Zoro kissed Luffy's forehead and then pulled away.

"I'm sorry. Goodbye." Zoro said with sad smile he fell backwards and into the abyss.

Luffy woke with a start and took in deep breaths of the ocean air. Luffy's heartbeat slowly stopped beating as hard and finally calmed down.

'Just a dream…Just a dream Luffy.' Luffy thought.

Still groggy from his sleep and a little out of it, Luffy stood up with his hat in hand and turned around.

Suddenly there was a large roaring sound and next thing Luffy knew was an exploding pain in him and seeing red. The immense pain he felt made him go into shock for a few seconds but he then tried to pull out of whatever was causing him pain.

The thing that also hurt Luffy also pulled away and back up.

Luffy blinked several times, trying to get the pain out of his eyes. When his eyes finally become clear he could see what hit him. A giant bull, about a couple of feet bigger then a normal bull, was standing there looking pissed.

The raven haired captain cursed under his breath. How could he have been so careless?

The bull charged at him and Luffy evaded, making the bull even madder. The beast steadied itself and lowered its head, as Luffy also steadied himself. Luffy raised his right foot into the air, getting ready.

Finally the bull charged and Luffy stretched his foot and kicked the bull far away into the air. When Luffy was satisfied that the bull was far enough away he looked down at his wounds.

Shit. He didn't need Chopper here to know the wounds were bad. He nearly had a fucking hole in his stomach! He needed to get back to the others and-

His thoughts were cut off as a scream was heard from the beach.

'Ohnononononono.' Were the first thoughts in his mind when he heard the scream. He knew it was one of his Nakama, he just didn't know which one.

Deciding to just put up with the pain in his stomach he ran as fast as he could, never noticing the trail of blood he left behind.

When Luffy got to the beach he saw Nami with her ankle twisted in what seemed like an awkward position and the bull was near her with its horns down in a threatening manner. Nami was biting her lip in what to seem to be anger and resentment and didn't seem scared at all but Luffy could see the fear in her eyes.

As the bull began its charge, Nami closed her eyes and bit her lip harder, waiting for the pain.

It never came.

Nami opened her eyes and gasped in horror.

"L-Luffy!!" She gasped.

Luffy held the bull by its horns and one of the horns was piercing his wound once again and diving even deeper then before.

Nami felt all color leave her face when she saw the bull's horn emerge from the other side of Luffy, making a hole completely through.

Her captain merely grunted and pulled the bull out of his chest and picked the bull up, his muscles flexing, and threw the bull a good distance of feet away. The bull got up, shook itself and ran off back into the forest.

Luffy didn't even look at Nami, knowing the look on her face.

"How's your ankle?" He asked, not looking away from the area where the bull had disappeared into.

"It's fine. We need to get Chopper and have him look at you!" The navigator said.

At that moment Chopper, Robin, and Usopp came out from some bushes.

"Hey Nami, what's wrong? We heard you- Oh my God! Luffy!" Usopp exclaimed as he saw the pool of blood quickly growing at Luffy's feet. The other two behind him, Chopper and Robin also had a horrified look on their faces.

Chopper finally snapped back into the world of the living and ran over to his raven haired Captain, who was turning paler with every second.

Luffy's legs buckled and he fell into a exhausted heap on the ground which caused Usopp to run over and help the small doctor bring Luffy up.

Chopper, who was now in his big form, started to give orders.

"We need to get him onto the ship and I need to patch him up quickly! He's losing too much blood!"

Usopp nodded and then started to help Chopper bring Luffy up the ladder onto the ship while Robin helped Nami up. Robin then noticed something.

"Where is Captain-san's hat?" She asked and everyone stopped. They all looked at Luffy's head and indeed the hat that was usually on his head was gone. Luffy then began to struggle a little.

" My 'at." He mumbled as he tried to go in the direction he had come from before the bull had attacked Nami.

"Luffy stop! You need to get patched up! You can't go running off with a hole in you!" Chopper scolded.

"But Shanks' hat…" Mumbled Luffy.

Just then Zoro and Sanji came out of another group of bushes, arguing. What Sanji was going to resort in whatever Zoro said was cut short when he saw Luffy. The cigarette dropped from his lips.

"What the fuck happened!?" He asked, his eyes wide with shock as he stared at Luffy.

Zoro turned his head from staring at the look on Sanji's face in confusion to look at his Nakama with shock on his face. Seeing the blood hold in Luffy made his eyes widened even more.

"Luffy!" He nearly screamed. He ran towards his Captain, wanting to know what happened to him.

Luffy was already out of it somewhat due to blood loss so he didn't even feel Zoro's hand on his shoulder.

Luffy knew that questions were being asked and someone was answering them, he thought Nami might be answering them but he couldn't be sure. Everything was so blurry and distorted.

"Mmmh. My 'at." He mumbled under his breath, but Zoro heard him.

"Where's your hat Captain, I'll go get it." He said in a soft voice that most people never hear him use. Luffy was one of the lucky people who heard most often.

The Captain raised a shaky hand and pointed to the area he had come back from.

"Follow the path, 'yea can't miss it." He mumbled, in a somewhat cryptic voice that no one noticed except for Zoro.

The last thing Luffy saw before he passed out was the blurry shape of Zoro's head.

**XxXxXxXxXx**

When Luffy woke up, it took a while for him to really awake all his senses.

The first sense to awake was his sense of smell. He smelled what seemed to be medical supplies, along with the smell of the ocean and the faint smell of cooking. The latter was more appealing then the rest.

The second sense to awake was his sense of taste. He could taste the coppery taste of blood in his mouth, which wasn't so pleasant.

The third sense to awake was his sense of touch. He could feel the couch underneath him and the bandages around his torso.

The fourth sense to awake was his hearing he heard a familiar voice say his name softly and his third sense came back into play as he felt a hand brush against his forehead.

"Luffy." Said the voice that seemed to float around him and echo.

And finally his fifth sense, sight, returned to him as he opened his eyes to look at the person who had spoken his name.

"Z-Zoro." He said, his voice cracking. Luffy winced at the pain in his throat and Zoro picked up the glass of water that was placed near him and brought it to Luffy's lips. Luffy gratefully drank it but made sure he drank it slowly as he didn't want to get sick from drinking it too quickly.

When Luffy pulled away he let out a sigh and laid his head back down on his pillow.

"So, how is the crew?" He asked.

Zoro snorted. "You wake up and the first thing you wonder is about the Crew's health instead of your own? Typical." The swordsman mumbled the last part.

The raven haired man furrowed his eyebrows.

"Why shouldn't I be worried about my Nakama?" He asked in a defensive tone.

Zoro put up a hand in defense. "I'm not saying you shouldn't worry about our Nakama, I'm saying you should care about your self also! You care so much for your Nakama and you throw yourself into such dangerous situations at times it makes me wonder if you really care about us and yourself." Zoro said, his face blank.

Luffy bolted upward with shock and hurt on his face, and a bit of pain too since his wounds hadn't healed completely yet.

"Of course I care about you guys and myself!" He said, the evident hurt ringing in his voice.

"Well sometimes I wonder!" Shouted Zoro, throwing his fist down hard onto the couch, but making sure not to hit Luffy.

More calmly, Zoro started again. "You go into situations where you either die or win and you risk it all for someone, even people you hardly know! You also don't care what kind danger it seems to put you in. You get beat up and thrashed to the point we think we are going to lose you! Did you ever think of how worried we were when that bull attacked you two days ago? You weren't even thinking when you jumped in front of Nami? When you took that horn through your gut, did you realize just how close it was to killing you?" Zoro asked heatedly, taking only a second to look at Luffy's face.

"We…We all thought we were going to lose you, and our dreams would die with you. Now don't give me that look Luffy, you know as well as I do that if you were to die we wouldn't have it in us to be the Straw Hat Nakama anymore. You are the thing that binds us all together. We all love you and each other and it kills us inside to see you, someone who cares so much for his Nakama, willing to jump in front of a bull and get seriously hurt. We just wish you would think about what you do before you do it." Zoro said, getting a deep breath once he was done.

Luffy was silently thinking over what Zoro said. Luffy was not the idiot people thought he was. He knew the dangers of being a pirate and having a Nakama to care for, but he totally forgot of his Nakama worrying about him. He had tried to be strong for them so they wouldn't have to worry about him.

The younger man sighed.

"Y'know, I can't change on command. I know I put my life and you guys at risk so many times but that's just the way I am. Yes I understand how you guys feel about if I were to die; I feel the same way about all of my Nakama. That's why I jumped in front of Nami, that's why once someone is my friend I fight to protect them. My Nakama are my precious people and if they were to disappear I wouldn't want to be a pirate anymore. I treasure my dream greatly but I treasure my Nakama even more." Luffy said with his eyes closed. He slowly opened his eyes and looked at his first mate that had the look of understanding in his eyes.

"You guys are my precious people and I protect my precious people." Luffy said with a firm nod.

Zoro stared at his Captain and for what seemed to be the first time he saw the bright fire that glowed in his eyes. The fire was passionate, caring, intelligent, and powerful. It made Zoro see just how great a Captain his Captain is.

The swordsman leaned towards the smaller and younger male and hugged him. He breathed in the scent that was only and uniquely Luffy.

"We know Luffy. We know." He mumbled into Luffy's ear, causing the younger of the two to shutter slightly. He then pulled away from Luffy and gently pushed him down onto the couch.

"Sleep Captain, you need it." He said with a small smile.

Luffy smiled back and closed his eyes. He began to drift off immediately.

He fell into a deep sleep, with a happy grin on his face, knowing his Nakama was safe and protected.

**OWARI**

**Inumaru:** Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed this. I wanted to post something before I went to New York City for vacation. I'm leaving tomorrow and won't be back till Friday 20th by at least the afternoon. I'm going with **eleven **people, including my self, and they are all my family! It's not that I don't love my family, I do really but I'm someone who loves my privacy and I'm going to have my two little cousins following me around so hopefully my brother won't have to hold me back from hurting them. (Crosses fingers) Let's hope not right?

Well an-y-way, There is going to be a sequel to this called **A Nakama's Worries** but I'm not going to be able to work on it till I get home Friday, but knowing me I won't start working on it till Saturday. (Sigh)

Aw well, please review and tell me what you think and Please, **PLEASE** vote on this poll I have on my Profile. Well Until next time, Ja Ne Minna-san!


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